


Fate's Accountant

by RightHandofFenHarel



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: M/M, Past Abuse, Past Childhood Trauma, Post-TLJ, Some Humor, Some hurt/comfort, a little something for everyone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-13
Updated: 2018-02-13
Packaged: 2019-03-17 16:47:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13663164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RightHandofFenHarel/pseuds/RightHandofFenHarel
Summary: Supreme Leader Kylo Ren's reign of terror starts off poorly and continues on a downward trajectory from there.  Badly as he doesn't wish to admit it, he needs his estranged lover/former co-commander's help to put everything back together again both personally and professionally.  Surely, Snoke had something laying around here that will be sufficient enough to bribe him.  What gift best says, "I'm sorry I've been an incompetent asshole and I want you back"?





	Fate's Accountant

**Author's Note:**

  * For [GallifreyanOmnishambles](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GallifreyanOmnishambles/gifts).



> Based off the following prompts:
> 
> Kylo goes too far with his aggression and finds himself needing to regain Hux' trust while Hux recovers from his injuries
> 
> The newly self-appointed Supreme Leader discovers a wealth of stockpiled luxuries in Snoke's quarters. How does he share them with Hux?
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

Kylo Ren had had better days, which was a genuine surprise seeing as how it was the day he fulfilled his destiny. The First Order abandoned the rebel base on Crait having found very few resources or strategic value in maintaining a presence on the planet.  Anything salvageable was gathered and the remains of the rest incinerated.  The Resistance, of course, had disappeared.  General Hux was in medical and refusing all visitors or communications.  Captain Phasma was presumed dead.  In addition to the obvious depletion of ammunition the Order was also facing a caf shortage.  The everyday rank and file were generally confused and irritable due to withdrawal and the sudden change in leadership.  Needless to say, the reign of Supreme Leader Kylo Ren was off to a fairly inauspicious start.

The first night had been difficult, but pleasant overall.  Skywalker was dead - count that both in the win and loss column due to the nature of his demise - a less than favorable outcome.  Rey, no, the scavenger, Ren reminded himself, for he refused to open himself up to the slippery slope of intimacy that was using her name ever again, had vanished, taking the remnants of the Resistance and that damnable piece of junk with her.  Count that firmly in the loss column.  Hux was in medbay due to injuries sustained while nagging and therefore couldn’t continue said nagging - win.  Ren had surpassed even his grandfather in political power, if not gravitas, by seizing the throne - win.  Also like his grandfather,however, he had no one to share it with, having put his consistent and committed paramour in hospital and chased potential replacement paramour away - loss.  There was also the small problem of a complete lack of leadership skills.  He couldn’t even convince someone who was and had nothing to do his bidding.  All this of course before the bureaucracy came knocking on his door.  On second thought, the first night wasn’t pleasant at all.  Then came day two.

It took three hours and sixteen bureaucrats for Ren to begin to miss Hux desperately.  Not for any sort of sentimental reason, naturally; it was simply because Hux really should have been dealing with all this trivial nonsense. Ren had no interest in the Order’s finances (or lack thereof).  He couldn’t care less what resources needed to be allocated in order secure further caf supply (just secure it already).  He also didn’t particularly worry about repairs to TIE Fighters (he maintained his own ship, surely others did the same) or which soldiers were trained in which skills and who needed to be replaced because of casualties.  Hux would sort that all out.  Snoke didn’t deal with any of this so Ren wouldn’t either. His job was to be a man of vision.  To think on a cosmic scale.  How was the balance of the force tipping?  How could he live up to his destiny?  Surely fate or the force could handle the details.  Ren was more than happy to be fate’s right hand, the muscle and enforcement of it’s will, but he had no desire to handle the day to day details of running a military.  He was not fate’s accountant.  That was Hux. Fate’s personal assistant as it were.  Destiny’s transcriber and… well, Ren’s train of thought had gotten away from him a bit there.  What mattered was what had once been a welcome reprieve now had become a nuisance.  He marched down to the medbay relishing the thought of informing Hux that his indulgent 20 hour vacation was now over.  It was quite the shock when he arrived to find Hux was in fact unconscious.  It had not been a ruse.  Though no external signs of distress were present on his body, he had broken ribs which were being slowly fused back into place and various internal injuries to the neck and respiratory system.  Ren spent a fitful  night in his new overly opulent quarters ruminating on everything. He stewed in his own self contempt.  He’d been led astray by a pair of pretty eyes, a strong personality, and a few kind words.  Hardly anything new for him, if he was being truly honest with himself.  It had been the same with Hux, except for the kind words.  Those came much much later into the process.  The thought that he hadn’t just missed Hux because of his clerical skills, echoed through the caverns of his mind.  His success tasted only of failure. Before leaving the medbay, a droid had assured Ren that Hux was medically stable and would make a full recovery, but now Ren couldn’t shake the image of Hux lying helpless, his skin dull and wan, because of Ren’s poor coping skills. Everything Ren touched turned to ash.  Why should Hux be any different?

* * *

 

By day five Supreme Leader Kylo Ren, Jedi Killer, was desperate to do literally anything other than follow through on the responsibilities inherent in the title that he had claimed a few days earlier in what was most definitely a masterfully well executed plan, not a textbook definition of poor impulse control.  Mid-morning, the fleet arrived at its destination, an uncharted world that Snoke had taken up residence in.  It seemed as good a place as any to regroup and with any luck, Ren would be able to unearth if not the riches that Snoke built the Order with, at least information that would lead him to that source of wealth.  With minimal effort, he arranged a mission to recover the caf supply line, then gave instructions to be left undisturbed while he, for lack of a better term, rifled through Snoke’s personal belongings.  It turned out that the majority of the planet was essentially a compound, not unlike Starkiller Base had been.  But where Starkiller had been the center of grand military operations, this planet simply served as a vault to house all of Snoke’s junk.  Sorting through this mess would no doubt take some time, but it seemed like the perfect excuse to avoid any actual Supreme Leader type duties.  Snoke’s affairs needed to be put in order and who better than the inheritor to do the heavy lifting.  

Ren took a two full days just to walk through the expanse of rooms and tunnels, before settling in to start the deep investigation. Snoke hoarded a myriad of collections, everything from luxury furniture and clothing to what amounted to a full museum on the galactic history of torture techniques. Snoke had a gathered 12 rooms full of ancient Sith artifacts and a dark force resource library that Ren could happily devote his next nine lifetimes to studying. There were rooms full of foreign delicacies and what appeared to be the galaxy’s entire remaining supply of boxed chocolates from the former Empire somewhat dubiously named “Gracious Government Mix.”  Ren opened the lid of a box and was delighted to see Vader’s dark chocolate helmet nestled in the center. Six beautifully carved chocolate Star Destroyers surrounded the helmet among other well known Imperial symbols. He set one box aside to give to Hux when he awoke.  

There seemed to be no rhyme nor reason to what was stored where except that each room was quite well organized around its own particular theme.  Next to the chocolate room were three greenhouses complete with artificial sunlight and droids devoted to gardening.  Ren was particularly interested in the row of Force sensitive plants.  After gaining permission from one, he placed it near the box of chocolates to be given as a gift as well.  

Ren continued on and found collections of weapons, a room full of semi-pornographic fountains, stacks of sheet music for the great Galactic Operas, a whole host of vehicles all the way from hoverboards to a full sized TIE Fighter that had been gilded in gold.  There was room after room of art taken from long dead cultures, a lab for experiments on the extension of life, jars of left ears of every known sentient species, and a rather disturbing album devoted entirely to press holos of former Grand Admiral Thrawn.

Midway through exploring a room of interrogation droids, all cleanly labeled with era, special features, and particularly interesting users and victims (he willfully ignored the one labeled simply Darth Vader/Princess Leia Organa), his comm chirped cheerfully.  Hux was awake, a med droid informed him. Ren gathered his treasures and made his way back through the maze to the ground level of the compound.  He wasn’t naive enough to think that Hux would be happy to see him, but he hoped with such heartfelt gifts in tow and sincere contrition, that he might be forgiven.  Hux would take over the day to day tedium and he’d have his personal life sorted in one swift motion.  

* * *

  
“What is all this rubbish?”  Like most of Ren’s strategies, this one was not terribly successful.

“Gifts.”  Kylo knelt at Hux’s feet just inside the door to his quarters.  Hux still looked drained, but some of the color had returned to his face. His voice cracked and rasped on every other word.  Ren winced at the reason why.

“Gifts?  These are almost fourty year old chocolates and plants that spit poison.”

“I thought you’d like… I mean they’re offered as a way of.. Well, I’m sorry.”  Ren stared at the floor.

“You’re sorry.”

Ren nodded. “Yes, I’m sorry”

“Alright you’re sorry.” Hux seemed to chew on the word, then walked over to a table to grab his data pad.  He scrolled back a few screens.  

“Let’s see if there is anything you should be sorry for, shall we?”  He continued to scroll.  

“Ah, yes, here we are.  While I have been indisposed I see that the order has engaged with the Resistance, which at the moment is about 9 people, no less than 3 times.  Once when they were hiding out on a planet that used to be allied with our forces and supplied us important resources.  They are no longer allied with us due to our lack of financial backing and coherent leadership.  You sent 6 officers, none of them combat rated, to deal with the situation against the planet’s entire military.  When they were taken hostage you sent in all our remaining TIE Fighters.  We lost the majority due to lack of strategy and direction, but we did manage to get 5 of the 6 officers back.  The 6th of course being the only man that our specialty wrench suppliers will negotiate with.  Wrenches that are also in short supply.  The only wrenches that can be used in maintaining oxygen tanks for the TIE fleet.  But don’t worry, that’s no longer much of a necessity seeing as how the rest of our fighters seem to be missing in action as you sent them chasing after the Millenium Falcon of all things when it escaped the bombardment.  All this because of, wait a second, let me see here.”  

Hux swiped a finger across the screen.

“It says “a crippling caf shortage.”   So this planet’s main strategic advantage to us was caf supply?”

“Yes.”

“And it says here that upon watching the rebels escape, you ordered our Destroyers to “live up to their name” and you basically incinerated the planet.

“Yes.”

“So now this planet has absolutely no resources, hates us, and will no doubt spread the tale of this little adventure to other systems, thus giving the Resistance an opportunity to garner support.”

“Yes.”

“Would you like me to read you the briefing on the other two encounters?”

“No.”

“You really are useless aren’t you?”

“Hm.” Kylo replied eloquently before muttering something unintelligible.

“What was that?”

Kylo mumbled at the floor again. 

“Look up when you are talking to me Ren, I can’t understand your childish drivel.”

He looked up, eyes warm but watery. “I said, without you, yes.”  

“Without me what?”

Ren’s patience was starting to wear thin.  He’d apologized, admitted his weakness, what more did Hux want?

“Without you it seems that I am useless, yes.”  He stood abruptly and loomed over Hux. “Are you happy now?”

Hux just rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Exceedingly.  What is it that you want?”

“Your help.”

“And?”

“Everything else that we…”

“No.  We aren’t doing this.”

“Please.”

“I tried to help you.  You threw me into a wall. I’m not lifting a finger for you. Now get out.”

“You can’t order me out, I’m the Supreme Leader.  Everything in the First Order belongs to me.”

“I do not.”

“I could just kill you for insubordination.”  He meant it as a joke. Mostly.  

“Well then get on with it.  Go back to your scavenger scum with my head as a trophy or get out of my presence.  Your choice.”

Ren was flabbergasted. “That’s what this is about, the girl?”

“Get out!”  Hux screamed then gave Kylo just enough of a shove to get him through the doorway.  It slid shut and locked. Ren thought better of simply forcing his way back through and stalked back to his rooms to sulk.  Upon further reflection, threatening murder was not an excellent way to get a former lover back into one’s bed. 

Despite his declaration, Hux was not designed to sit idle and he returned to his work routine the next day.  There was a palpable calm that descended on the compound as he sorted out Ren’s messes.  Troopers went back to their training as the wheels of Hux’s well oiled machine began to spin again.  

Ren went back to the vault and delved ever deeper.  Each day he came back with a new prize with which to win Hux over.  He didn’t dare provoke Hux by delivering them himself so that task was left to a different unfortunate Stormtrooper each day.  It seemed that no amount of exotic fruits or antique weapons manuals would sway Hux.  Most evenings the items were returned in the shaking hands of their deliverer.  One memorable night, a set of plush silk robes were returned on fire.  Ren was beginning to lose hope when he remembered a room that he’d purposely left undisturbed.  

With a flick of his wrist the door to a room labeled “Security Footage” slid open.  It was empty save for a projection table and touch screen.  The screen held the archive’s contents list.  Ren began to scroll.  There seemed to be footage dating back to the very beginning of recording technology.  Historical events were archived alongside the most basic of droid programming tests.  A shiver ran up Ren’s spine as he imagined Snoke watching all of this.  Recording anything and everything, dissecting every battle, analyzing every body movement, looking for weakness, manipulating victims.  Ren knew the consequences of that too well tried to push those memories out of his mind and he continued. Still, a part of him wanted to see what really had happened.  How he’d looked, what Snoke had chosen to save and use against him. The archive was organized first by era, then location, then down to individual people.  He realized with dismay that the cameras were still recording when he found entries autofiled from after Snoke’s death.  Ren hesitated when he scrolled to Solo, Ben, finger hovering above screen.  In the end he chose to exit out of the New Republic archive and move onto the archive containing First Order footage.  There was someone else he would rather investigate.  He wasted no time in clicking through to the entry titled Hux, Armitage.   

He really wished he hadn’t.  Once the footage started he couldn’t look away.  It started when Armitage was a child. Ren watched while he was punched and kicked.  He watched while he was pushed into furniture and the poor child scrambled to raise his hands against his abuser.  He watched while Armitage stood tall as his father berated him, keeping the tears at bay until he was left alone.  Ren retreated into his own memories of being hugged as a child.  Of waking in terror from nightmares and being held close.  He had been abandoned in the end, but he’d never been physically mistreated.  Armitage grew older and was backhanded, leaving a thin trickle of blood running from the corner of his mouth.  He stood outside a bacta tank with a wicked smile.  A similar smirk played on his features as he dodged a kiss from Ren, before pulling him into his quarters. He dropped to his knees, tears in his eyes, hands clawing at his throat while Ren raged in a room ringed with flame and ash.    

Ren switched off the feed and sat in silence.  He couldn’t fix this.  There was no gift that would turn Hux’s heart.  

* * *

 

Hux sighed when his door chimed announcing a visitor.  He glanced at his chrono and saw that it was time for his nightly gift rejection ritual.  When the door slid open, it was Kylo Ren himself, come to grovel once more.  Ren was in his space in two swift steps gathering him up in his arms, a soft palm against his cheek.  Hux struggled to get free.

“Get off me, you beast. This is entirely inappropriate.  What makes you think I would ever allow you to touch me again?”  Ren squeezed his eyes shut than with a steadying breath stepped back and took his hands in his.

“I’m so sorry.  I didn’t know about your father.”  Hux pulled his hands away and discretely reached for his hidden dagger as a precaution.

“You didn’t know about my shitty childhood so that makes it okay that you threw me around and choked me?”

Ren looked close to tears.

“No, of course not.  It wasn’t okay and never will be.  I thought… it really doesn’t matter what I thought.  You don’t have to forgive me, I just… please believe that I regret it.”

As Ren seemed to shrink back into his shame, Hux grew bolder standing tall just as he did to face down his father.

“I didn’t endure all of that just to let you destroy what I have built.  I’m never going back to that life.  You’ll not stand in my way.”

Ren met his eyes again, pleading.

“I don’t want to.  I want to stand at your side.”  He dropped a pair bracelets at Hux’s feet. They were old and scratched but hummed with energy.  They were Force suppression cuffs. Hux’s eyes narrowed, but he slipped his dagger back into place, safely hidden.

“Teach me?” Ren waited as Hux appraised him. The Supreme Leader sought guidance.  He needed direction and focus.  He needed Hux.

A silence that stretched for an age in Ren’s mind was broken by a sigh.

“We’ll need to start by announcing your ascendancy to the galaxy.  You’re speech will need to be commanding but not irate.”  Hux motioned to the sofa as he walked to his desk.

“Make yourself comfortable, while I write it.”

 


End file.
